On January 30, 2018, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing on a number of bills ended to speed deployment of broadband to rural and underserved areas. Many state leaders face the challenge of expanding access to broadband internet, a critical service to link rural citizens with economic and educational opportunities. It is particularly important to make...

If a collective bargaining agreement contains a general durational clause, retiree health insurance benefits last the duration of the agreement and aren’t vested for life the Supreme Court held in a per curiam (unauthored) opinion in CNH Industrial N. V. v. Reese.

CNH Industrial N.V. agreed to a six-year collective bargaining agreement providing those who retired under the pension plan health insurance but no other insurance benefits. The Sixth Circuit concluded the agreement was ambiguous as to whether retiree health insurance vested for life because it “carved out certain benefits” like life insurance “and stated that those coverages ceased at a time different than other provisions.” Extrinsic evidence supported lifetime vesting.

On Friday, February 9, 2018, President Trump signed a continuing resolution, or CR, and spending deal that ended a brief government shutdown that morning. The two-year deal funds the federal government at current levels until March 23.

“The state of the rural economy is fragile,” said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue while testifying to the House Committee on Agriculture on February 6, 2018. The Agricultural Act of 2014, which reauthorized agricultural and farm programs expires this year. This hearing is part of the effort to draft the next reauthorization, colloquially knowns as the farm bill.

In the mid-1800s Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest entered into treaties guaranteeing them a right to off-reservation fishing. In Washington v. United States the Supreme Court will decide whether the “fishing clause” guarantees “that the number of fish would always be sufficient to provide a ‘moderate living’ to the tribes.”

The “fishing clause” of the Stevens Treaties guaranteed “the right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations . . . in common with all citizens of the Territory.” In 2001 the United States and a number of tribes sued Washington State claiming that it violated the treaty by building culverts that prevented salmon for reproducing leading to the salmon supply significantly plummeting.

Michigan will be keeping a closer eye on the long-term fiscal health of its local governments under legislation signed into law in late 2017. SB 686 aims to address concerns about unfunded liabilities in pension and retiree health care systems.

A redrawing of the nation’s political maps is still three years away, but 2018 might someday be remembered as a year that changed how redistricting itself is done. If so, some states in the Midwest will be a big part of that story.

In Ohio and Michigan, voters may have the chance in the coming months to decide the fate of their states’ respective redistricting processes. The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, has taken on a case that centers on the current Wisconsin Assembly map and that raises questions about the constitutionality, and future, of partisan gerrymandering around the country.

Legislatures themselves, too, continue to consider making changes of their own.

North Dakota legislators sued Gov. Doug Burgum in December, alleging he overstepped his line-item veto authority by deleting words or phrases in ways that changed legislative intent. The state’s Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and gave the governor’s office until Jan. 16 to file a response.

The Supreme Court held 5-4 in Artis v. District of Columbiathat “tolled” under 28 U.S.C 1367(d) means suspended or that the clock is stopped. The State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) filed an amicus brief arguing in favor of a different definition of “tolled.” Justice Ginsburg cited to the SLLC brief once in her majority opinion. Justice Gorsuch cited to it or discussed it four times in his dissenting opinion.

A year after the fact, Stephanie Artis sued the District of Columbia in federal district court bringing a number of federal and state law claims related to her termination as a health inspector. It took the federal court over two and a half years to rule on her claims. It dismissed her sole federal claim and declined to exercise jurisdiction over her remaining state law claims.

28 U.S.C 1367(d) states that statutes of limitations for state law claims pending in federal court shall be “tolled” for a period of 30 days after they are dismissed (unless state law provides a longer tolling period).